3D gaming is soon set to move way beyond its current limited niche in the hardcore PC market, with console manufacturers and game developers increasingly eager to provide us with compelling interactive content to play on the slew of new TVs set to hit the shelves later this spring.
CES 2010 was, in many ways, a festival of 3D television tech, with pretty much every major TV manufacturer unveiling its latest 3D HD TV models – many of which will see a commercial release later next month.
The runaway successes of movies such as James Cameron’s Avatar and Disney’s UP have not only generated a much-welcome renewed interest in cinema-going, but they will also drive 3D TV sales when they arrive on Blu-ray later in 2010.
Sky is also launching the world’s first 3D television station in April which will drive consumer adoption further. Just like that imaginary game of Tetris 3D we dreamed of the other night, the pieces are starting to fall into place.
But what of ‘proper’ 3D gaming in our lounges? Are we still stuck in that annoying catch-22 stalemate position, where publishers won’t invest the extra cash and developers won’t go the extra mile until a proven market (and that all-important return on investment) is in place?
A brief history of 3D gaming
There have been numerous attempts to take console and handheld and PC gaming into the third dimension in the last twenty years. Most have been quickly (and rightly) dismissed by consumers as little more than cheap headache-inducing gimmickry.
“We didn’t worry so much about the past efforts, such as Nintendo’s Virtual Boy or things like that,” says Dale H Maunu, an analyst at 3D and display tech research firm Insight Media.
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“3D gaming is really more recent, in terms of the ability to do Stereoscopic 3D (“S-3D”) gaming. The release of DirectX 8 ushered in the era of a standardized 3D API for MS Windows, which resulted in game developers and publishers creating more 3D assets in their games,” adds Maunu.
“The move to DirectX 9 provided still more tools for game developers and is really the minimum requirement for S-3D gaming; many of the titles that can be played in S-3D were developed for DirectX 9.”
Rewinding a couple of years back to 2008, there were already 3D monitors and systems available from the likes of iZ3D and Zalman for playing DirectX 9 games in S-3D. “The Zalman system used drivers from DDD, while iZ3D developed their own,” says Maunu, adding, “the systems worked pretty well, but the drivers generally needed to be hand-tweaked for each game since there was no standard or API for S-3D. Plus, the game developers were not directly involved in making their games work in S-3D so there was still quite a bit of variability in the S-3D experience from game-to-game.”
It was really the introduction of Nvidia’s 3D Vision tech early in 2009, along with its own S-3D API, that started to put some standards in place for games developers and games buyers.
“World of Warcraft introduced support for 3D Vision in early 2009, and Nvidia was able to convince many developers to support S-3D,” says Maunu. And some cracking 3D-optimised PC titles soon followed including the likes of Left 4 Dead 2, Resident Evil 5, Batman: Arkham Asylum and, most recently, the game spin-off of Avatar from Ubisoft.
TechRadar spoke with Patrick Naud, Ubi’s Executive Producer of Avatar, who told us that working on 3D “was a great experience for our team… any time we can get out there and be one of the first on a new technology like this, you get a boost of creativity, and we had a lot of fun coming up with great ways to use the innovation to make a game that puts the player right into the environment and action.
“I personally see a lot of potential with combining 3-D with Natal,” says the Avatar game producer. “These two technologies together will bring us even more immersive experience to gameplay.”
Low entry barriers
Of all the creative industries, it is games development that is uniquely positioned to immediately do the most interesting stuff with new 3D display and glasses tech. After all, games creators have been making their games in 3D for years, but have to date only been limited by the fact that the game is viewed and played on a flat 2D monitor or television.
“It seems certain that with all sections of industry getting ready to rally behind 3D TV it is something game developers will have start putting in their sights,” agrees Peter Walsh, Lead Programmer at Cohort Studios.
“Game developers are uniquely poised to develop content to take advantage of 3D TV. Film makers, sports broadcasters, animation studios, and just about anyone else involved in TV need to make significant investments replacing their infrastructure of cameras, editing equipment, and so on to handle 3D data.
“Game developers on the other hand already have all that information readily available. In fact we spend a great deal of time trying to make 3D worlds display well on a 2D screen. To make games work with 3D TV we already have the depth information available – we just need the means to convey that data to the new TVs.”
2010 is hotting up to be the year of the great motion controller battle – the year of the Sony Arc versus the Nintendo Wii MotionPlus versus Microsoft’s Project Natal. Yet it is interesting to note that of those three console giants it is only Sony, to date, that has been quick to embrace new 3D tech.
Different types and sizes of 3D TVs will give gamers varying degrees of “depth” projected out of the screen. However, there is a potential issue here for games developers working with motion controllers, because the two technologies could combine badly, and only service to annoy and confuse gamers, if they are not easily and accurately able to simulate touching 3D objects via their expensive new 3D TV.
Might this be a key stumbling block for those devs that want to try to combine new motion control techniques with games that make use of 3D displays?
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“It will be technically difficult to match up user perceptions of space with what the motion control hardware can capture,” says Cohort Studios’ Peter Walsh. Although he remains positive about the possibilities, adding:
“In time these limitations will be overcome and it could produce a new style of augmented reality. At Cohort Studios, we think the new developments in controller technology and 3D TV have positive implications for the future. On their own, each provides a great leap forward for increasing game immersion – but together they can change the playing field.
Walsh and most other games devs agree that there is still a lot of work to be done. Not least to make 3D glasses less intrusive and harder wearing, and to standardise the output of 3D TVs so game developers have a predictable (and commercially-viable) platform to work with.
The UK leads 3D gaming innovation
Back to the here and now, in addition to the game version of Avatar, there has been one other console title to date that works in in full S-3D (with a 3D TV) on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, which is the XBLA and PSN game Invincible Tiger, from the one of the UK’s largest independent developers, Blitz Games Studios.
BLITZ: UK Studio is world-leader in 3D game development
TechRadar spoke at length with Andrew Oliver, Blitz’s Chief Technical Officer and a vocal (and early) exponent of 3D gaming on consoles.
“Putting the rubbish old anaglyph 3D behind us, the recent 3D gaming tech was initially developed by Nvidia around 2000 or 2001,” Oliver tells us. “However, while they were doing some interesting stuff with CRT monitors, the whole thing was put on the back burner with the introduction of LCD monitors with lower refresh rates,” he adds, explaining why the games industry has not embraced 3D PC gaming sooner.
“It has always been there in the background on the PC, but with Nvidia’s solution – and more recently with ATI’s own solution – they still kind of ‘adapt’ other people’s games. They take games that have already been written and then they put these extra drivers in to give you two views,” Oliver adds. “It works pretty effectively, but every now and then you see where programmers have cheated a bit and put flat billboards into games, or whatever, and it is kind of really obvious.”
For this reason both Nvidia and ATI have been encouraging game developers to make ‘native 3D’ and games specifically designed for 3D – so that the developers can be sure to fix those types of glitches and problems that might spoil the illusion, with PC titles such as Blizzard’s mighty MMO World of Warcraft and Rocksteady’s sublime Batman: Arkham Asylum being two of the best and most high profile of these from last year.
Oliver is the first to admit that while he and his teams of programmers (“frankly, quite a lot of geeks”) have been playing around with different 3D monitors and technologies in the office for ages, the ‘eureka’ moment for him was seeing Polar Express on IMAX 3D.
For him, it was both the first full-length 3D film that was “really classy” and contained “some real wow moments” and which, in turn, “was when we started looking into the possibilities of 3D gaming in the home.”
After developing various interactive 3D demos to show TV manufacturers and media giants at events such as CES and SIGGRAPH, Blitz finally arrived at a fully-realised 3D stereoscopic console game in Invincible Tiger which was more of a ‘proof-of-concept’ project as opposed to a commercial game made to turn a profit.
INVINCIBLE TIGER: Blitz’s 3D game was a world first
“When we made Invincible Tiger we were proving that we could make a full 3D game, but at the same time we were having to try to ensure that it was compatible with all the different 3D formats that each manufacturer had at the time for their TVs – was an absolute pain!” he remembers, adding that he is much happier now that the new HDMI 1.4 format is standardising the playing field for 3D console gaming in 2010.
Following its CES announcements and demos, it is clear that Sony is putting its considerable weight behind 3D gaming, while Microsoft seems pretty happy to sit on the fence, directing its resources and PR clout towards Project Natal and motion control instead. And as for Nintendo, 3D is just not on its radar.
Oliver is quick to remind us that, in addition to the PlayStation 3, Sony also makes 3D movies, 3D projectors, 3D film cameras, 3D Blu-rays and 3D Bravia TVs. To ask why the company is seriously betting the farm on 3D is like asking why Microsoft is so obsessed with operating systems on PCs. It is not a new growth area of the business for Sony. It is right at the CORE of their business.
“Sony has always been at that cutting edge and can clearly see that the consumer wants 3D. Avatar has just cemented that, but they were committed to it long before that movie’s success,” says Oliver, who was lucky enough to spend a good amount of time playing Sony’s 3D game demos at CES.
“SCE was showing a raft of 3D PS3 games at CES – including playable versions of WipEout, Gran Turismo 5 and Super Stardust 3D and ‘coming soon’ 3D videos showing Motorstorm, LittleBigPlanet and Major League Baseball. And they all looked really nice.”
“Sony will soon be spreading the message to developers to get on board too. Yet we still have that catch-22 situation, where developers will say “it takes a bit more effort and a bit more cost to make a game with a 3D mode” – at Blitz we estimate around 10 to 15 per cent added to the budget – when as yet nobody owns a HDMI 1.4 3D-ready TV.”
Thankfully, for gamers, it it looks like more publishers are starting to see that faintly glowing ‘return-on-investment light’ at the end of the tunnel.
“As a businessman, I understand that practical, bottom-line focus,” says Oliver, who is happy that a couple more publishers are now willing to start to take that risk, “because they know that reviewers will be wowed by it.”
“And of course these new TVs will be on sale from March onwards and Blu-ray 3Ds will start to appear through the late spring and early summer. Sky will launch its own 3D programming in April. And Sony Centres and game stores will soon have full 3D gaming demo set-ups, which is vital, because you really have got to see it to believe it. I’ve seen Gran Turismo 5 running in 3D and it is stunning. It is a major step forward. It is gaming’s Avatar.“
Nvidia’s 3D gameplan
So it is clear that having that full endorsement of the latest active-shutter 3D TV and glasses technology from Sony Computer Entertainment – in addition to those other major new 3D-in-the-home services such as Sky 3D later this spring – is really going to boost the demand and desire for the tech amongst general consumers.
But going back to the here and now of 3D gaming on PC, what is Nvidia and its game development and hardware partners planning for 3D gaming in 2010?
The company has been supporting 3D PC gaming for quite a while now with its 3D Vision tech – which is basically a kit comprising of a pair of active shutter glasses, an IR-emitter and all of the necessary drivers and software to turn your games into a full 3D experience (providing you have a new 120Hz monitor, that is).
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“We have been there with 3D and leading the way since it effectively came back from the dead,” says Nvidia’s Senior Corporate Communications Manager for the EMEAI region, Bea Longworth. “3D has had numerous resurgences since the 1950s, but right up until this recent CES it has always still been dogged with that air of the ‘shock-horror, cheap paper glasses, skeletons falling from the ceiling’ gimmick.
“So up until now, many people thought it was a bit of fun, but never something that was going to become a core technology for entertainment devices. But add that Sony-endorsement of 3D for the PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray to the fact that all of the major TV manufacturers have now come out with 3D-capable panels, the news that Sky is soon releasing 3D TV content and the massive runaway success of Avatar in cinemas… it is clearly something that is here to stay and something that has a massive amount of momentum at the moment and something that Nvidia is proud to have been part of starting up in the gaming arena, which is our particular forte.”
As for 3D Blu-ray tech, Nvidia has also been and working very closely with its various software and hardware partners to try to make sure they can deliver the best 3D movie experience in the home.
“It is a surprisingly good experience,” says Longworth of 3D Blu-ray. “Many critics claim that nobody will want to wear glasses to view TV in the home, but I think the quality of this experience will change those people’s minds. Obviously, there are some game developers that we are working with – as part of our ‘The Way Its Meant To Be Played’ program – who are implementing 3D into games in ways that are integral to the gameplay, so the 3D is a key part of the gamer’s experience. Rather than a pretty bolt-on.”
Dell’s own PC gaming brand, Alienware has also been working with Nvidia to bring its new £450 AW 2310 120Hz gaming monitor to market this month, with Adam Griffin, Dell’s UK Marketing Manager, telling TechRadar that he has already started playing through Half-Life 2 again, “but this time using the 3D Vision glasses and our new monitor, because it is a very different game…very immersive and very cool. It now has that extra added edge to it, that makes you want to play all the way through it again.”
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Griffin clearly thinks we have reached a sweet spot for mass adoption of the new tech, noting that, “price points are much more accessible now, in addition to the increased understanding of what 3D can bring to films and games that blockbuster movies like Avatar have created.”
But does he think that this means leading PC game developers such as Valve might go back and rework their PC classics to optimise them for 3D? And what more might developers do to push the experience forward?
“It wouldn’t surprise me, there are only a few minor glitches that would need to be fixed to make the overall experience [of Half Life 2] better – things such as water effects and so on that look a bit weird right now in 3D,” says Griffin.
“More generally, there is still a lot of work to be done, with things like first person shooter games, for example. You look at the cross-hairs on some fps games, and it sits right in front of your eyes in 3D, which is really not a comfortable playing position for it to be. But there is definitely an opportunity for PC gaming companies to reinvent some of their key PC games for the 3D experience.”
The console market will no doubt begin to drive the masses towards 3D later in 2010 with the arrival of 3D PlayStation 3 blockbusters such as the aforementioned Gran Turismo 5, but for now it is purely PC gamers and early adopters – those that are buying Nvidia’s kit and Alienware’s new 3D monitors – that are leading the way.
“Absolutely,” agrees Griffin, “which is why I am always proud to be part of the PC gaming industry. These are the people that blog passionately about what they love and hate about new technologies, and they are the people that we rely on for that all-important feedback that helps us to develop the Alienware brand to make sure we are delivering what is required in the market.
“Both Dell and Alienware are currently monitoring the 3D laptops market, as we think there could well soon be an opportunity for us to bring out our own 3D laptop solutions,” says Griffin, with an obvious nod to the early attempts of manufacturers such as Asus to offer laptops with 120Hz 3D-capable screens.
The future?
Chris Chinnock, President of specialist display research and analysis firm Insight Media, told TechRadar recently that, “it is safe to say that most games and all AAA games will be authored in 3D by 2020.”
This, he added, “does not mean they will all be played in 3D, but the capability will exist to do that. By then, I also expect decent performance from auto-stereoscopic displays, which means no glasses. Head/eye tracking will be widely used to improve the stereo effect.”
Speaking to PC Zone recently, Sefton Hill, the director of Batman: Arkham Asylum said of the future of 3D gaming: “From our point of view 3D is just something to consider now, simply because the technology is here… there is now not much of a barrier in terms of getting the 3D to work well, the barrier now is really more about designing games that leverage the 3D tech in the best ways.
“Bringing in elements of motion control will really help when properly used alongside 3D – so things like head-tracking, where you can move your head and look around to view objects in a proper 3D space.”
Likewise, Stephen Viljoen, the CEO of Slightly Mad Studios – who created a superb 3D experience for Need for Speed Shift on PC, gives a glimpse of things to come:
“I think what will happen next is that we will start designing around the potential of the 3D projection… when we start working with weather effects and you have totally convincing rain splashing out of the screen towards you and so on. That’s when it will start to get really interesting.”
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